| UBRARY OF CONGRESS, J 

Chap. ..„.? '("^P^ I 



^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM SOUTH CAROLINA), 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



THE SENATE, 

iJ . S FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. 



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W A s 1 1 I N G TON : 

GllVKI] N M E X T P R I N TING OFFICE. 

I H 8 2 . 



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JOIXT RESOLUTION to print certain eulogies delivered in Congress upon the late Michael 

P. O'Connor. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That there be printed of the eulogies delivered 
in Congress upon the late Michael P. O'Connor, a member-elect to the Forty- 
seventh Congress front the State of South Carolina, twelve thousand copies, 
of which three thousand shall be for the use of the Senate and nine thousand 
for the use of the House of Representatives; and the Secretary of the Treasury 
be, and he is hereby, directed to have printed a portrait of the said Michael 
P. O'Connor to accompany said eulogies; and for the purpose of engraving 
and printing said portrait the sum of live hundred dollars, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any 
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

Approved, March lo, 1882. 
2 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



In the House of Representatives, 

December 16, 1881. 

Mr. Dibble. Mr. Speaker, it is my melancholy duty to make to 
this House the announcement of the death of my predecessor, the 
Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from 
the Suite of South Carolina, and to present resolutions of respect 
to his memory. I ask that the resolutions be read, and beg leave 
to state that I will call them up at the proper time for further con- 
sideration and for the expression by the members of this House of 
the esteem in which the memory of the deceased is held. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from the State 
of South Carolina. 

Iiimilial, That, as a mark of respect to his memory, the officers and mem- 
bers of this House will wear ihe usual bad^e of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Clerk of 
this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the Senate; and that, as a further mark of respect to the memory 
of the deeeased, this House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Dibble. I now move, out of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, this House do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to; and accordingly the House adjourned. 



4 life and character of michael p. o'connor. 

In the House of Representatives, 

February 8, 1882. 

The Speaker. The hour of three o'clock having arrived, the 
House will now proceed to consider the special order. 

Mr. Dibble. I submit the resolutions which I send to the 
Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has heard with profound sorrow of the death of 
Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from the State (if 
South Carolina. 

Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to his memory, the officers and mem- 
bers of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions In- transmitted by the Clerk of 
this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the Senate; and that, as a further mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 



ADDRESSES 

ON IHlv 

DEATH OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR, 

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. 



DELIVERED IX THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
February -. 1 ■—-.'. 



Address of Mr. Dibble, of South Carolina. 

Mr. Speaker: The mortal remains of our statesmen and our 
heroes are not gathered in a cloistered abbey, surrounded with a 
wealth of eulogistic epitaph ; there is no favored area richer than 
all i ithers as the treasury of the ashes of our illustrious dead. And 
so it should be. From the ranks of the people they have risen, as 
the servants of the people they have achieved their honors, and 
in the midst of the people they find their last resting-places. And 
as their bodies mingle with the common dust the soil of the 
Republic becomes more and more consecrated to patriotism and to 
liberty, and no pilgrimage is necessary to find a shrine; for each 
-rave becomes a holy spot which loved ones may often visit, and 
where also while the aged may meditate on the transitory nature 
of human glory the young men of the country may be inspired 
with a laudable ambition to achieve a similar greatness. Such a 
spol is Michael P. O'Connor's grave. In the bosom of the soil 
of his native State his ashes rest in peace, but the memory of his 
good deeds completes the lesson interrupted by his early death. 
And to-day we pause in the usual work of legislation to pay the 
tribute of friendship and to record his many virtues. 



6 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

In Beaufort, South Carolina, on the 29th day of September, 
1831, Michael P. O'Connor was born. The place of his birth 
was one of the garden-spots of South Carolina. It was a center 
of culture and refinement, and has been prolific of men who became 
distinguished in the annals of the State and of the Republic. The 
associations surrounding the youth of Mr. O'Connor were favor- 
able to the development of those brilliant mental qualities which 
gave early promise of noble reputation, to those graceful and culti- 
vated manners which so fitly adorned his wirm and genial nature, 
and to those lofty sentiments of patriotism and devotion to duty 
which inspired his whole career in life. A liberal education at 
home, and at Saint John's College, at Fordham, in the State of New 
York, developed his natural abilities into the rounded accomplish- 
ments of cultured manhood. As the result of his devotion to the 
pursuit of learning we find him, a graduate at the early age of 
eighteen years, turning his attention to the study of the law in the 
city of Charleston. In those days there was no royal road by which 
to gain admission to the bar. Laborious and severe preparation 
and a long course of studious probation were exacted by South 
Carolina of those who aspired to the office of the advocate and the 
counselor. The commission of an attorney in her courts of justice 
was only bestowed after a rigid examination before the judges of her 
courts of last resort. In the year 1854, Mr. O'Connor, after 
thorough preparation, was duly admitted to the bar, and began to 
practice his profession at Charleston ; and by his close attention to 
business, and his brilliant eloquence as an advocate, he marked his 
pathway with many successes, and established his position as an able 
and accomplished orator and lawyer. But it was then no ordinary 
period. Grave questions arose and agitated the public mind, and 
the time was then rapidly approaching when every day would make 
history. Mr. O'Connor entered with all the fervor of his nature 
into the arena of politics. We find him in 1858, at the age of 



ADDRESS OF MB. DIBBLE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 7 

twenty-seven, a member of the State legislature from the parish 
of Saint Philip's and Saint Michael's, which embraced the city of 
Charleston. This constituency he continued to represent, with 
increasing popularity at home and with marked influence in the 
halls of legislation, until 1866- During this period, in the year 
I860, one of the most eloquent of his public utterances was a ring- 
ing appeal, in the state-house at Columbia, in favor of the mainte- 
nance of the Union of the States. 

After the war was over Mr. ? Connor, in common with the 
people of the South, found himself wrecked in fortune. Put lie 
had indomitable energy and brilliant talents, and he resumed, with 
all the alacrity of his earlier life, his professional labors. Perhaps 
for one of his cultivated tastes and fondness for literary as well as 
forensic pursuits the period of his life preceding his re-entry upon 
a public career was as happily spent as any portion of his days. 
His profession afforded an ample field for active and remunerative 
mental exercise. The companionship of friends of congenial tastes 
and sympathies gave opportunity for the enjoyment of those literary 
and social recreations which add such a charm to our daily life. 
And the quiet enjoyment of home filled the measure of content in 
a life so much in unison with the warm and genial nature of Mr. 
O'Connor. 

But his admiring fellow-citizens refused to consent to his remain- 
ing in private life. Sometimes persons aspire to public positions 
of dignity; at other times the occasion suggests the man. The 
latter is true of Michael P. O'Connor. He was called upon 
to accept the office of Representative as a matter of duty, and the 
patriot responded to the call. How well he fulfilled the obligations 
assumed by him here 1 shall leave to those to narrate who were 
associated with him as members of the House. Suffice it for me, 
as one of his constituents, to say we were all satisfied at home. 
And in evidence of this I would request to have printed here, as a 



8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

part of my remarks, a brief sketch of the action of the city council 
of Charleston on the occasion of his death, which occurred at his 
home in that city on the 26th of April, 1881 : 

City of Charleston, 
Executive Department, April M), 1881. 
The regular bimonthly meeting of the city council was held at their 
chamber this evening. There were present Hon. William A. Courtenay, 
mayor; Aldermen Dingle, Ruddy, Chisolm, Aichel, Webb, White, Ufferhardt, 
Moran, Loeb, Eckel, Thayer, Johnson, Feehau, Rose, Barkley, Sigwald, 
Rodgers, and Ebaugh, 

The mayor, with evident emotion, said: 

" Gentlemen of council, our regular meeting this evening comes to us at a 
time of sorrow to a large circle of family and friends, and amid a general 
feeling of sadness throughout our community. Our gifted and eloquent 
townsman, M. P. O'Connor, the Representative in Congress from this 
district, so long and so affectionately known to all of us, lies dead at his 
home, within sight of this council chamber. 

"His hands are folded on bis breast, 
There is no other thought expressed 
Than lony disquiet merged in rest. 

"1 feel that we owe it alike to his personal worth and his official station 
that we should give expression to our feelings of sympathy and condolence 
at this afflicting dispensation of Providence, and before proceeding with the 
regular call of business I have felt, that I would best conform to your 
own feelings by making this official announcement." 

Alderman Dingle offered the following resolutions: 

•' His honor the mayor having announced to the city council, in council 
chamber assembled, the recent death, at his residence in this city, of Hon. 
M. P. O'Connor, member of Congress from the first Congressional district : 
Therefore, 

"Be it resolved iy the city council, That in the death of Hon. M. P. O'Connor 
the State of South Carolina has lost a true, ardent, and faithful Repre- 
sentative in the national eouueils, and the city one of its most devoted and 
distinguished citizens. 

"Resolved, That the city council express herewith their sincere condolence 
with the family of the distinguished deceased in their great loss. 

"Resolved, That the city council attend in a body the funeral of the 
deceased. 

" Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased this 
council do now adjourn." 

Alderman Ufferhardt said : 

" Mr. Mayor, in rising to second the resolutions just submitted I do so with 
a mournful and heavy heart. Audi am sure every member of this council 



ADDRESS OF MR. DIBBLE, OF SOUTB C IB0L1NA. 9 

shares this feeling of sorrow over a loss so unexpected and irreparable. Ay, 
the whole city and State feel with us the calamity of seeing cold in death one 
who laid down his life in the service of his people; one who, like a tried 
\\ arrior wounded and worn out upon the held oi hat I le, lias no! even had time 
to lay aside his armor, but dies just as he is broughl a\\ ay, although permitted 
to reach his home and friends. I repeat, Mr. Mayor, that I second the resolu 
tions before you, although full of sorrow and regret." 

Alderman Thayer said : 

"Mr. Mayor. 1 also would second the preamble and resolutions, and add 

my humble tribute to the memory of our h< red friend, fellow-citizen, and 

Representative. 

'■ It was not my privilege to have been as intimately associated with Mr. 
O'CONSTOK as had so many others, but it was mine to have known him as inv 
friend and, realizing, to have appreciated the sincerity of his friendship. The 
genial, bland manner which always graced his intercourse with his fellows 

was no merely ass d garb, but the outer sign of the true and uoble hearl 

which dwelt within. 

"As a citizen, in this presence, I need not recall how well he tilled his part, 
ever ready as he was to give time, labor, and influence, and to spend and he 
spent in the interest of our city, State, and country. 

"And as our Representative how fully he has earned and deserved the 
award of his constituency: 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' If no 
more, his long, earnest, and at last successful efforts in the interests of those 
who through wrong and mismanagement had been so despoiled of their hard- 
earned savings will he a proud monument to his memory, and should call forth 
the gratitude of the recipients of the results mainly attained through his 
devoted care and attention. This, as his other well-directed efforts, may In- 
regarded as only in the line of official duty; but, sir, there was more than the 
simple performance of duty— there was largely involved the spirit of self- 
sacrifice, for as now we learn how long and severely he had been battling 
with the dread disease which has just terminated his valuable life, we realize 
ami can hut admire the renunciation of self despite pain and suffering he evi- 
denced, yet to dare and do where duty called. 

" lint now, ' lie's battle's o'er,' in that stricken home be lies — 

"In the deep silence of that dreamless state 
Of sleep, that knows no waking joys again. 

"There would we tread lightly: to his sorrow-bowed loved ones extending 
our heartfelt sympathies in their sore bereavement, and commending them 
to Him who has promised to he the God of the widow and the father of the 
fatherless. 

"Mr. Mayor, I move the adoption of tin' preamble and resolutions." 

The resolutions were then voted unanimously, and the city council was 
declared adjourned. 

W. N. SIMONS, 

ClerJc of ' 'ouncil, 



] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

Mr. Speaker, how transitory are worldly honors! Vitce summa 
brevis spent nos vetat inehoare longam. The laurels of success 
sometimes form the garland which decks the victim for the sacrifice. 
Death, who "loves a shining mark," often directs his shafts at the 
glittering jewel which ambition presses to its breast, and aiming at 
the bauble, pierces a human heart. And, again, it is true, as the 
poet has said : 

The good die first, 
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dost 
Biivii to the socket 

Michael P. O'Connor came to these legislative halls full of 
high and noble purposes. He felt that his duty here was to serve 
his constituency and his country; and he rendered the service at 
the expense of his life. Gifted as he was with those powers of 
persuasive eloquence which had captivated many an audience, he 
became a working, not a talking, member of the House; and in his 
devotion to his fellow-citizens at home there was no discrimination. 
His heart was large enough to embrace all classes. The welfare of 
the humblest negro in the log cabin of the piney-woods was the 
object of his careful solicitude as well as that of the merchant and 
the planter of means and influence; and in his career in Congress 
some of his most earnest efforts were for the benefit of the colored 
people of the South. I instance here his exertions in favor of 
legislation for the relief of depositors of the Freedman's Savings 
Bank. 

Mr. Speaker, it would afford me a mournful satisfaction to speak 
longer of the virtues of the departed ; of his high Christian charac- 
ter; of his identification with numerous philanthropic and chari- 
table enterprises at home ; of the lack of anything like partisan 
bitterness in his nature; of his statesmanlike views of public duty; 
of the magnetism of his nature, which captivated all those with 
whom lie came in contact; and of his love of country and his 



ADDRESS OF MI!. RANDALL, OP PENNSYLVANIA. 11 

devotion to her interests. But I will leave these topics to others. 
Suffice it to say of him, in conclusion, what is better than all else, 
that, living in Christian faith, he <lic<l in the full confidence of a 
Christian's hope, awaiting the resurrection of the just. 



Address of Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker : Almost from the first moment of my meeting Mr. 
O'Connor I was impressed w-ith the fact that he was one of those 
true men who earnestly seek to know the exact condition of afiairs, 
and then, after becoming convinced of what duty commanded, 
followed with fearless courage the convictions forced upon him. 

Coming here after a war which had resulted most disastrously 
for his State so far as those were concerned who had engaged 
against the power of the Union, he never stopped to repine, but 
with unflagging industry and unvarying courtesy did all he could 
to make the most of his opportunities. Indeed, sir, now looking 
back upon the recent past, I cannot recall any man who more sin- 
cerely accepted the results of the civil conflict, or who more ear- 
nestly endeavored to secure for Ids people a new future, and so to 
utilize their mental and material resources as to fix them again in 
prosperity and cordial union with their fellow-citizens of the other 
States. 

He obtained respect and standing on his advent in the Forty- 
sixth Congress by refined manners and gentlemanly bearing. He 
modestly took the positions on committees which were assigned to 
him, and won the confidence and applause of his associates by the 
industry, care, and ability which he displayed in the discharge of 
the duties imposed upon him. He desired to be useful rather than 
ornamental, and each day the House was in session he was promptly 
in attendance, save when ill-health prevented, anxious only to do 
the best he could toward his share of the labors imposed upon the 



12 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

Representatives of the people. And yet, sir, his mind was stored 
with learning and his fervid imagination prompted to an eloquence 
which shook many an audience with the storm of applause. But 
here, in the fierce contest of antagonistic and conflicting interests, 
he was wary and eager to secure for his constituents the highest 
success their circumstances would afford. He was staunch and 
faithful as a friend. His word once passed was as inviolable as 
faith itself. Well I knew this, and deeply I lamented his loss. 

Mr. Speaker, the burdens imposed upon the Representatives of 
the people are numberless and the cares which accompany them must 
oppressive, while the reward for "days filled with labor and nights 
devoid of ease" is so inadequate, that public life would be without 
enticement if it were not for the devotion of friends like Mr. 
O'Connor. I deeply mourn his loss, for no man had a truer 
friend; one whose fidelity never wavered, whose heart never sank, 
however untoward the future might seem. 

I mourn not only for a faithful friend and wise adviser, but 1 
mourn the loss of a brave-hearted American Representative, whose 
ami lit ion was not only to behold his State one of the most prosper- 
ous in the Union, but it reached higher and was nobler in that it 
taught to see his whole country leading the van of nations toward 
that civilization which crowns not the few, but elevates the masses 
to that comfort which comes from thriving industry, good order, 
and well-established justice. 

His domestic life was that which becomes a gentleman. He was 
the head of a happy home, the proud father of a devoted family. 
To it his loss is irreparable. But to his children the inheritance of 
an unstained name and the record of an honorable public service 
are better than gold and brighter than diamonds. In these memo- 
rial services I could not say less, but my heart has feelings for our 
dead associate which words are powerless to express. An honest 
man, a staunch friend, a true, brave-hearted patriot, has gone. 



ADDRESS OF MS. BOWMAN, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 13 



Address of Mr. Bowman, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Speaker: I am glad to join with my fellow-members in 
offering my tribute of respect to the memory of him in whose honor 
these services are held to-day. When one has deserved well of* his 
country; has honestly and faithfully worked for its interest; has 
laboriously and conscientiously performed the duties of his office as 
a member of Congress, it is fitting that we should turn aside for at 
least a few moments from the duties of the hour and place on per- 
petual record our testimonials of respect, affection, and esteem. It 
is the last service which we can render for him ; it is a service which 
our deceased friend well merited, so that we can perform it not as a 
mere matter of custom or form of duty, but because his pleasant 
and genial disposition, his kindness of heart, his integrity of char- 
acter, and his industry and faithfulness in the discharge of duty, 
rendered it for him a just due, and for us a consolation and sad 
pleasure that we can honestly bestow it. 

Mi-. O'Connor and I came to the last Congress as new members, 
ami it may perhaps be considered as our misfortune that we were 
assigned to the laborious and somewhat thankless duties of the 
Committee on Claims. Coming from widely separated sections of 
the country, strangers to each other, and of different political faiths, 
it might seem as if we had no thoughts or interests in common ; but 
a few weeks had hardly passed before a friendly intimacy grew up 
between us which continued until his death, and which I shall 
alwavs cherish as among the pleasant recollections of my Congres- 
sional life. 

I do not think that one could come into close contact with Mr. 
O'Connor without finding his respect for him rapidly grow into 
affection. Although he was firm and decided in his views, he had 
respect for the opinions of others, however widely different from 



14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

his own. He never allowed opinions to blossom out and mature 
into bigotry. His judgment of what was right never ran into the 
narrow ruts of intolerance, and the sharpest political controversy 
or the widest differences of opinion never caused in him bitterness of 
feeling or personal animosities. I doubt if our friend could under 
any circumstances have been a good hater; he was too kind in 
heart and gentle in disposition. After all it is perhaps the highest 
praise which you can bestow upon a man to say he is a gentleman, 
not in the modern and corrupted meaning of the word, which by 
usage has seemed to apply only to wealth, position, appearance, 
manners, or other external qualities, but in the original and higher 
meaning, that one is a gentleman; one who, however strong and 
firm and unyielding and brave in the cause of right and principle, 
yet has that gentleness of manner and kindness of heart which 
always has regard to the opinions and feelings and desires and com- 
fort of others. Such a gentleman in the highest and best and 
truest sense of the word our brother member was. Pie disliked to 
do a harsh thing; he hated to say a harsh word, and always he 
would rather say good of a man than evil. 

He preferred to apologize for and excuse the faults or foibles of 
others, rather than to enlarge upon them. What impressed me 
most in my intercourse with him was his unfailing good nature, his 
geniality of disposition, his kindness in word and act. His impul- 
siveness did not cover petulance, nor his earnestness degenerate into 
anger or impatience, and when in the latter days of the last Con- 
gress his failing health kept him away from many of the meetings 
of the committee, I am sure there could have been none whose 
pleasant face and pleasant words would have been more missed. 

But his kindness of disposition did not degenerate into weakness, 
and his pleasant manners were no proof of a soft and feeble nature. 
There was in him a sturdiness of character and a force and power 
of manhood which would prevent him from improperly yielding in 



ADDRESS OF MR. BOWMAN, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 15 

those things wherever his amiability and desire to please might 
tempt him to give way. I am sure that he always tried t<> do the 
right thing, that he meant to do what was just and fair and honest, 
and that if he had once found out what he deemed to be the right 
path, neither the desire to please friend nor to punish foe would 
swerve him from it. I always had great respect for his plain and 
steady honesty of purpose, and however much I differed from him 
(and we did differ widely on many subjects), I always and justly 
gave him credit for sincerity and a desire to be right and to do right. 
I could not sympathize with some of his views, yet I respected 
thorn and knew that he held them honestly and sincerely, and it is 
always easy to "agree to disagree" without any interruption to the 
warmest friendship where one has respect for the motives and feel- 
ings of the one from whom he differs. 

The duties of the Committee on Claims arc not particularly pleas- 
ant. They call for quiet, hard, and unobtrusive work, which the 
public care little for and which does not attract public notice or lift 
the worker up before the public gaze. About the only reward it 
can bring to the member is the consciousness of performing neces- 
sary duties well and honestly, and it does not blossom out into fame 
nor make his name known to the people, as important work on 
what may be called a public committee frequently does. Yet the 
dutjes thus imposed upon him our friend assumed with as much 
industry, zealousness, and perseverance as if he was by their perform- 
ance treading the pathway to fame or other personal reward. He was 
a good lawyer, and (what is by no means synonymous) had good 
common sense and a wise judgment. The mere letter of the law- 
could not with him be allowed to destroy equity and justice, nor on the 
other hand could his instincts of benevolence and the perhaps piti- 
able case- of suffering which might be brought to his notice induce 
him to forget what was right toward the government, or to lie 
false to his duties as a member of Congress and one of the guard- 



16 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

ians of the interests of his country. In presenting the cases com- 
mitted to his charge, either in committee or in the House, by written 
report or by speech, he was compact, forcible, logical, and at times 
eloquent. He urfderstood the principles underlying the cases, and 
was forcible in presenting them. His report, as a member of the 
Committee on Civil Service Reform of the last Congress, upon the 
question of the reference of all private claims before Congress to 
the Court of Claims, was a thorough and forcible presentation of 
that subject. He did good work and hard work in committee and 
House, and was an active, industrious, and conscientious legislator. 
For his family we have sympathy; for ourselves, the pleasant 
memories of him who w r aswith us during the many months of the 
last Congress; for him, congratulations. For surely it is well with 
a man, and is the best, if somewhere in the hereafter he can feel 
that all life's troubles and toils and sufferings are over and he is safe 
beyond their reach and has earned his rest, and that he has gone 
from life to death, or rather perhaps from death unto life, with the 
respect of those who knew him and by them sincerely mourned. 



Address of Mr. MAGINNIS, of Montana. 

Mr. Speaker: Among all the friends whom I have met upon 
this floor, behind whose disappearing forms have closed the iron 
gates of death, I cherish with particular affection the memory of 
M. P. O'Connor. His frank and generous nature, his cordial, 
kindly ways, his unfailing courtesy, won all who came close to him. 
There was between us also that community of sentiment which comes 
of a common sympathy with the sorrows and the aspirations of the 
race from which we both have sprung. Indeed, I first became 
intimate with Mr. O'Connor at the time when the starving people 
of Ireland were stretching in piteous appeal their wasted hands 



ADDRESS OF MR. MAGINNIS, OF MONTANA. 17 

across the rolling waves and asking the generous people of this 
happy land to save them from death and despair, produced by long 
years of misgovern meut and oppression. We both were members 
of the committee of reception appointed under the resolution which 
gave Mr. Parnell the use of this Hall, in order that he might tell 
the Representatives of the American people of the miseries of his 
native land, and explain the methods of reform for which he was 
pleading. 

Later, I was present at a banquet over which Mr. O'Connor 
presided. I shall never forget the eloquent speech in which lie 
responded to the first toast, or the ready, graceful, appropriate 
way in which he called out and introduced subsequent speakers. 
I never met a more charming or eloquent host. I was, of course, 
deeply interested. Coming from a new laud, among whose lower- 
ing mountains and wide-stretching valleys there is room for untold 
millions of people; living under a government that takes infinite' 
pains to protect the claim of the humblest settler, and to measure 
and define and patent to any settler a farm and a home who lives 
upon it for five years, I could scarcely comprehend the fact that in 
another land, homes that had been occupied, and little farms that 
had been tilled, for generation after generation, might be lost to 
those born and reared upon them through the misfortunes of an 
adverse season or the failure of a single crop or the unjust exac- 
tions of an avaricious landlord. And I heartily sympathized with 
the devoted young member of Parliament whom we entertained ; 
a gentleman who is the leader of his people ; who, under a free 
government, would be the premier of his country, but who is now 
in jail under an arbitrary and despotic act which requires no charge 
and permits of no trial. 

As a member of this House Mr. O'Connor was devoted to any 
duty that was assigned to him. I never knew a member more 
anxious to serve his constituents. It was painfully evident during 
•2 O 



18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

the closing days of the last Congress that his health was in a most 
precarious condition, but he remained at his desk day after day 
and endeavored to accomplish the work that was pressing upon 
him. When the Cougress dissolved he sought his home in the 
South, confident that the balmy air of his own beautiful city by 
the sea would restore his vigor and health again. I parted from 
him in the hope of receiving his kindly grasp aud meeting his 
genial smile on my return. I was far away in the interior of the 
continent when I accidentally heard the news of his death. I was 
shocked and grieved beyond expression, and the pain of it has 
never left me. I can only give it expression in this inadequate 
tribute of my regard for the memory of a kind friend, an honest 
and an able man. 



Address of Mr. Lindsey, of Maine. 

Mr. Speaker : My acquaintance with Mr. O'Coxxor was sin >rt , 
commencing with his entry into the Forty -sixth Congress ; yet it 
happened we were thrown much together in committee, and I 
learned to know him there well. My brief acquaintance does not 
warrant me in speaking, as others have fitly done, of loss sustained 
by family relatives and locality, or of the excellence he exhibited 
in the relation of husband, father, friend, and citizen ; but I must 
content myself in saying only a word as I knew him here. In the 
Forty-sixth Congress Mr. O'Coxxor was assigned to the Commit- 
tee on Claims, where I may say he was respected and appreciated 
by all his associates. In that committee he knew no party, no 
section, no man. He examined the matters committed to him for 
the cause alone, and determined them upon what he regarded as 
sound and well-settled principles of law. I am sure all his associ- 
ates will bear cheerful witness to his earnest effort to do his full 



ADDRESS OF MR. BELTZBOOVER, OF PE&NSYLVANIA. 19 

duty in a committee overwhelmed with business of a kind that 
attracts but little public attention and finds small favor in this 
House. To what position he might have attained with larger 
service and more conspicuous place it is now useless to speculate. 
His service here is completed. The work committed to him to do 
was faithfully done. And it is but fact to say that those who 
knew him best respected him most. 



Address of Mr. Beltzhoover, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker : It is an immemorial and universal custom 
among men to honor the memories of their departed friends. 
This sacred usage springs from the purest emotions of the soul, 
and goes forth in a thousand various forms to elevate and beautify 
all that was great and good in the dead, and to extenuate and con- 
ceal all that was frail and bad. The method of expressing this 
sentiment of respect for their dead is an index of the civilization 
of nations, extending from the rude symbolic ceremonies and 
mound-burials of the savage to the elegant and elocpient eulogies 
which embalm the memories of the departed in the literature and 
song of the most cultured peoples. The history of all the efforts 
of mankind on this subject unerringly teach, however, that there 
is no earthly immortality for the dead except in the imperishable 
keeping of written language. The marble pillars set up by Sesos- 
tris to mark his concpuests have dissolved into dust. The great 
tumulus over the heroes on the plain of Marathon is almost gone. 
The stone lion at the pass of Thermopylae and the statues and 
emblems which were intended to perpetuate the names of the 
mighty men of the past have all perished amid the indistinguish- 
able wrecks of mortality. The tombs of Abraham and iEueas 
and of Moses and Romulus are with those of the mighty host of 
sleeping demi-gods which are marked on the world's great battle- 



20 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

fields with the humblest and meekest — unknown! The highest 
and most enduring tribute, therefore, which we can pay to a dead 
friend is in the earnest, fervent words of praise with which we 
commit the record of his character and virtues to the unyielding 
embrace of history. Impressed and influenced by this belief, I 
earnestly and affectionately join with those who desire to express 
their respect and admiration for the life and services of one who 
was lately a distinguished member of this body. Hon. Michael 
P. O'Connor was born on the 29th day of September, 1831, at 
Beaufort, South Carolina, and died at Charleston, in that State, on 
the 26th day of April, 1881. He was a man of strong intellectual 
power, of liberal education, an able lawyer, a skillful debater, an 
industrious and efficient legislator, an affectionate husband and 
parent, and a courteous gentleman. He had a fine personal ap- 
pearance, a strong, compact frame, a large, well-formed, brainy 
head, and a scholarly face. 

He was a hard student from his youth to his grave. He was 
educated at Saint John's College, situated at Fordham, now a part 
of New York City, which, from the character of its organization, 
its location, surroundings, and numerous and varied facilities, is 
one of the very best educational institutions in the country. Its 
founder and head was the venerable Archbishop Hughes, and its 
president during Mr. O'Connor's attendance was the distinguished 
Cardinal MeCloskey. With a complete literary equipment, he 
entered the legal profession at Charleston, which has one of the 
best and ablest bars in the State. He was elected to the legisla- 
ture of South Carolina for seven consecutive years. He was a 
member of the Forty-sixth Congress, and served his full term. He 
was re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress, but died during the 
interval between the adjournment of the last and the meeting of 
the present session. In the Forty-sixth Congress he served on the 
( lommittees on Claims, Civil Service Reform, and Labor. Neither 



ADDRESS OF Mil. BELTZHOOVEB, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 21 

of these committees and the work assigned to them afford any con- 
siderable opportunities for forensic display or the development of 
the peculiar qualities of statesmanship. Neither of them furnished 
a theater for the exhibition of the abilities and experience of Mr. 
O'Connor. But he wrought faithfully where fortune placed him, 
and it is not unfair to any member of the Committee on Claims to 
say that no one on that committee surpassed him in the industry 
and ability and success with which he performed his duties on that 
his chief committee. 

1 remember well his report and argument on the bill for the 
relief of L. Madison Day. This claim rested on an apparently 
equitable ground, and involved the discussion of some interesting 
questions of constitutional and statute law. But, in addition to 
other objections, there was an insuperable, although by no means 
patent, technical and legal barrier in the way of the claim. Mr. 
O'Connor's report accompanying the bill was lengthy and able, 
and came as near making a feeble appear to be a faultless case 
as rare tact and ingenuity and legal acumen could do. When 
the bill came up for final passage in the House he made a strong 
and effective speech in its favor, still further refining the discrimi- 
nations by which he ingeniously labored to reason away and break 
the force of the decisions against the legality of the claim. The 
tide was clearly in favor of the bill. A number of lawyers who 
saw the weakness of the case and the obstacles in its way inter- 
rupted him, myself among the number, briefly suggesting the 
grounds of difficulty. At this critical period of the debate one 
of the most skillful and ready men of the House, Mr. Hammond, 
of Georgia, entered the discussion, and by a short and incisive 
argument turned the current against the bill. Mr. O'Conmh; 
promptly obtained an adjournment, and when the discussion was 
renewed on the following day he came fresh to the contest, and, 
fighting gallantly, was only beaten by one or two votes. 



22 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL 1'. O'CONNOR. 

If I had seen him manage a hundred legal battles I could perhaps 
have had a better idea of the extent of his versatility and resources, 
but I could not have been more convinced of his marked force and 
adroitness as a lawyer and of his tact and readiness as a debater and 
parliamentarian. One of the most learned and eloquent men of the 
last generation declared that he could tell from hearing any man 
talk fifteen minutes whether he had a classical education. So it 
seems to me that any person with reasonable powers of discrimina- 
tion could not listen to Mr. O'Connor during the progress of even 
a brief debate without being deeply impressed with the elegance 
and force of his language and the cogency of his argument. The 
career of a new member of Congress can only be judged of in this 
way. He has few opportunities, and for these he waits like a soldier 
for battle. He must seize the current when it serves, and if he 
brings to the only occasion presented in his whole term all the ability 
and skill which a master of the subject could be expected to command, 
he deserves more praise than he who monopolizes the Record with 
daily lucubrations. Mr. O'Connor was occasionally called to the 
chair by the Speaker during the Forty-sixth Congress, and always 
presided with dignity and ability. He wasan attentive, industrious, 
and useful member of the House. He was always at his commit- 
tees during their sittings and in the House during its sessions. He 
was a gentleman of rare courtesy and politeness in his intercourse 
with his fellow-members and with all men. He was devoted to his 
family, and spoke of them often with the greatest pride and deepest 
affection, and they reciprocated his love by being fondly attached 
to him. 

With a strong mind, a liberal literary and legal culture, an 
extensive experience and practice at the bar, a long service in the 
legislature of his State, and an honorable record of service for a 
full term in this the highest legislative body in the world, thoroughly 
armed and prepared, he had just stepped out into the grand arena 



ADDRESS OF MR. BELTZBOOVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 23 

of a bright career in the public service of* the nation. But in the 
prime of his manhood and in the noonday of his hope and ambition 
be was suddenly summoned to the gloomy shades of the unseen 
world. I well remember meeting him in the chamber in the rear 
of the Hall of the House on one of the last days of last session. 
He spoke a few words in reference to the contest for his seat, which 
was then pending before the Election Committee. He then grasped 
my hand in his cordial manner to bid megood-by, and said : " My 
friend, I am not well ; I must go homeand rest." He went home, 
and rested there in that long, unbroken sleep which knows no 
waking. The beautiful country and balmy sunshine and quiet 
home could not stay the inflexible purpose of an unpropitious destiny. 
The great common law of human hope and human ambition, which 
is symbolized by the broken column and unfinished work, was 
rigidly followed and enforced, and he was cut down in obedience to 
its inexorable decree. There are a few favorites of this mysterious 
and revengeful Nemesis, whose names stand out at long intervals on 
the highway of history, who seem to have lived out the purpose of 
existence in seeing the fulfillment and enjoying the fruition of a 
life's work of sacrifice and toil and endeavor. But these exceptions 
only serve to justify humanity in its mutinous mutterings of rebell- 
ion against the common lot. The great and innumerable hosts 
which struggle on the upward road to fame are lost amid its inhos- 
pitable crags and treacherous steeps. 

The greatest and proudest queen that ever swayed a scepter on 
the earth, after she had exhausted all the resources of power, and 
there was no other way to illustrate her glory and grandeur, com- 
manded a great and gorgeous palace of ice to be built in her cold 
northern home. With vast expense and skill and toil the mighty 
structure was reared, with its lofty columns and spacious halls and 
numerous chambers — an imposing and marvelous creation of human 
power and restless ambition. Within it the royal court assembled 



24 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

as in a palace radiant with measureless myriads of diamonds. No 
other queen ever held her high estate in so rare and so brilliant an 
abode. But the hot and certain summer came and breathed upon 
it, and the cold and glittering and wondrous pile, with all its grand- 
eur, dissolved like a vision of beauty, and left not a wreck behind. 
There is no fitter picture of the visionary structures which fill the 
vain and dreamy realm of human ambition; but it is the old, old 
story which reiteration has made stale and unprofitable. 

And yet ambition, luring its infatuated followers to disappoint- 
ment and death, will ever remain the strongest incentive to human 
endeavor. It is the mainspring of all the greatest efforts of human 
heroism ; it is the hopeless but determined and God-like reaching 
out of the human soul after the Infinite, of which it is a fragment 
and with which it struggles onward and ever to unite again. With 
Thomas Carlyle : 

It is not to taste thiuga sweet, bin to do noble and true things and vindi- 
cate himself under God's heavens a God-made man, that the poorest son of 
Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge 
kindles into a hero. They wrong man greatly who say he is to be seduced by 
ease. Difficulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death, are the allurements that act 
on the heart of man. Kindle the inner, genial life of him, you have a flame 
that burns up all lower considerations. 

This was the ambition which did uot " tire with toil nor cloy with 
power," which inspired and animated our dead friend in the battle 
of life. He had a right to be ambitious. He had it by inherit- 
ance from a race of the bravest and best among the sons of men. 
He bore a name which is linked with some of the purest triumphs 
of genius and liberty. He was born and reared in a State whose 
normal condition was revolution, and on the altars of whose house- 
hold gods there burned the undying fires of an all-consuming 
ambition. He bore the escutcheon of that grand old historic 
State whose chiefest glory in history will be that she was the 
mother not only of great but of ambitious men. He maintained 
her fair fame unsullied amid the sneers and shafts of spite and 



ADDRESS OF Ml!. ELLIS, OF LOUISIANA. 25 

revenue and contumely which mock her fallen fortunes and deso- 
lated fields, and sleeps now with her honored dead in her own 
proud and sunny clime. 

On his flower-entwined tomb let there be written that his ambi- 
tion was to nobly do the work of life; to faithfully serve his country 
and his friends ; to act well his part ; to struggle ever 

With an earnest soul. 

For seme great end from lliis low world afar; 
Ami still upward travel though lie miss the goal 

Anil strav— hut toward a star. 



Address of Mr. Ellis, of Louisiana. 

Mr. Speaker: I had thought that silence would best attest the 
affectionate remembrance in which I hold the honored dead, whose 
memory, consecrates this hour ; but the wishes of his friends, sec- 
onded by the strong demands of my own heart, prompt me to ask 
the brief indulgence of the House while I pay to his great worth a 
feeble tribute. 

That was a sad spring day to me, that April day of last year, in 
the soft light of which I read the fateful dispatch that told me that 
the great and good heart of Michael Patrick O'Connor had 
grown cold and still forever. It is true, sir, that I had not known 
him very long, but yet long enough to know him well and to have 
learned to admire him as one of the manliest, gentlest men I had 
ever met — long enough to have learned to love one of the noblest 
and most generous hearts that ever moved the currents of a human 
life. 

I formed his acquaintance when he came here to take his place in 
the Forty-sixth Congress, in December, 1879, but I was familiar 
with his name and reputation before I ever grasped his hand ; for 
he had won name and fame in his own State and among his own 
people, and was beloved and honored by them; and his State and 



26 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

people had in all of their history been accustomed to look with 
undazzled and unexaggerated gaze upon great and shining men. 
Their annals are emblazoned with the names and deeds of their 
Rutledges and Pinckneys, their McDuffies and Calhouns ami 
Haynes and Rhetts and Thornwells. Their standard of mental 
culture and intellectual endowment and manly courage and self- 
reliance is lofty, and it was no small achievement to have pressed 
to the front rank as a leader of such a people. But the fame of 
Mr. O'Connor, passing the boundaries of South Carolina, had 
become national ; for in a supreme moment in the councils of his 
party at one of its great national conventions, with the force and 
fire of a born leader, he had thrown himself into the torrent of a 
stormy debate that was surging and swollen with the impassioned 
thought of some of the foremost minds of the Union, and had suc- 
cessfully stemmed and calmed and controlled it. And the fame of 
the logical brain and the music-laden tongue of O'Connor had 
gone to all the States and people of the Republic. And so I was 
prepared beforehand to admire and respect him for his high intel- 
lectual endowments; but when I met him face to face there was a 
something in the warm clasp of his hand, in the bright, frank soul 
that looked from his open, honest eye, that said to me "Let us be 
friends"; and so we were almost from the outset of our acquaint- 
ance. And that friendship soon ripened into that intimate confi- 
dence that is so delightful to congenial spirits, in the sacredness of 
which men lay bare their souls and their hearts to each other. And 
it grew all the stronger and sweeter during his life; but, alas! it 
remains but a sacred and beautiful memory to me now. 

And now, sir, divesting myself as completely as I am able of that 
partiality with which affection looks upon the memory of a departed 
friend, let me as briefly as I can give to history my estimate and 
analysis of the character of him whose memory consecrates this 
hour. 



ADDRESS OF I//,'. ELLIS, OF LOUISIANA. 27 

Tin' warm, rich blood of Ireland, whether at its fountain-head 
or flowing out to commingle with the life-currents of other peoples, 
has in all history made men to stir with kindling speech, to thrill 
with ecstatic song, to entrance with rapturous music, to die with 
superb daring, to champion the cause of the oppressed with sublime 
devotion, to live in truth to their loves and in faith to their friend- 
ships, and to wear a sun-smile in their souls that carried light and 
warmth and wit and cheer to every scene upon which it beams. 
And this was the blood from which O'CONNOR was sprung, and 
aptly did he illustrate the noblest traits of the Irish race. In 
nature and disposition he was impulsive, generous, and affectionate. 
The coldness of calculating selfishness was all foreign to his soul. 
He was not a man of policy, substituting tact and craft for courage 
and directness and strength. Nor did his affection for friends find 
its origin in conscious weakness and dependence. It was rather the 
impulse of a heart as gentle as it was brave, as noble and charitable 
as it was fearless and true. His bearing among men was a most 
admirable commingling of manly dignity, unassuming modesty, 
and knightly courtesy, while the kindly smile, which was indeed 
the sunshine from his soul, and the frank, cordial manner of his 
address carried a mesmeric influence to all with whom he came in 
contact, and won for him the friendship and confidence of all who 
knew him. 

There was one beautiful trait in his character that impressed me. 
It was his broad-minded charity for the opinions, the faults, and 
the foibles of men. I have passed many hours with him in the 
fullest interchange of confidential thought, and I never heard him 
speak uncharitably of any man. If he had no word of commenda- 
tion he was silent. He endeavored to trace a good and pure motive 
in the speeches and actions of all men, and believed that men could 
differ widely from his views and opinions and still be as honest and 
sincere as he realized himself to be. 



28 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL l\ O'CONNOR. 

Mr. O'Connor was a born orator. His speech was ready and 
liis soul was full of the true spirit of poetry; and the beautiful in 
art and nature found in him a devout and constant worshiper. And 
so he clothed his strongest thought in the drapery of chaste language 
and poetic imagery. He could not believe that the column was less 
strong because it was polished and carved and sculptured, nor that 
the oak tree had less of power to defy the storm because of the 
green glory of its garb or the graceful vine that en wreathed it with 
fern and flower. Conscious of great gift of speech, he was free from 
the vanity that seeks ever to parade its excellences in public. The 
born orator hesitates to speak too often. Conscious of his power, 
with the loftiest conceptions of true oratory, with a morbid dread 
lest he fail to realize his ideal, feeling that the failure of genius 
involves a fall the terrors of which mediocrity can never know, 
because it never dared, the conscious orator sits oftentimes silent, 
while others without gift, save of assurance and perseverance, fill 
senate halls with discordant clamor. And thus it often happens that 
The shallows murmur while the deeps are dumb. 

Mr. O'Connor's voice was rich and clear and musical ; his 
enunciation was distinct and perfect; his manner and gesture were 
emphatic and impressive, and polished sentences full freighted with 
precious thought and clad with brilliant trope and g'owing meta- 
phor — like Jove-commissioned heralds from Olympian portals — 
leapt from his laboring lips. 

As a Representative he was careful, faithful, and painstaking. 
He was assiduous in looking after every interest of his people and 
scrupulous in attending to the most trifling wish of his humblest 
constituent. A most notable instance of his devotion to the rights 
of the poorer and humbler classes of his constituency were his 
labors, not alone in behalf of the colored people of his own district, 
but those of the entire South, in endeavoring to induce the govern- 
ment to pay in full the losses sustained by the freedmen in the 



ADDIIESS OF MR. ELLIS, OF LOUISIANA. 29 

failure of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company. In that 
good work I was his co-laborer, and the brief which we filed before 
the Ways and Means Committee, to which the bill was referred, 
was prepared by us jointly. I prepared the statement of facts and 
O'Coxxor wrote the argument upon the legal questions involved. 
And that argument, upon a novel and original proposition, involv- 
ing the question of the peculiar relations sustained by the govern- 
ment to the freedmen of the South during the period that elapsed 
between their manumission and their enfranchisement, and the 
obligation of the government arising from that relation, was one 
of singular power, clearness, and cogency, and of itself enough to 
rank Mr. O'Coxxor as one of the foremost lawyers of the country. 
His patriotism was intense. With all the fervor of his great 
heart did he love his native State. The misfortunes and calamities 
that befell South Carolina from 1861 to 1876 seemed to endear her 
and her people all the more to his faithful soul. Again and again 
has he recited to me the Iliad of her woes, and with more than ten- 
derness of speech and voice discovered to me a pathetic and cling- 
ing devotion to her fortunes that prosperity and power and victory 
would never have commanded, and then he would quote these 
exquisite words of the gifted orator and poet-priest, the laureate of 
the South: 

A land without ruins is a land without memories; a land without memo- 
ries is a land without history. A land that wears a laurel crown may he fair 
to see; but twine a few sail cypress leaves around the brow of any land, and 
be that land barren, beautiless, and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated 
coronet of sorrow, and it wins the sympathy of the heart and of history. 
Crowns of roses fade, crowns of thorns endure. Calvaries and crucifixes take 
the deepest hold on humanity. The triumphs of might are transient — they 
pass and are forgotten; the sufferings of right are graven deepest on the 
chronicle of nations. 

As a statesman he was broad, liberal, and progressive. His soul 
had no patience with that kind of statesmanship which insists upon 
holding an endless wake over dead issues — -which, like Lot's wile, is 



30 LIFE AM> CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

turning forever to look back at the smouldering ashes of dead ideas 
that were consumed in the fierce fires of civil war. He believed 
that the "dead past should bury its dead"; he favored a strong 
and progressive American policy; he longed to see the magic wand 
of material development touch the land of the South; he was an 
enthusiastic friend of all measures that looked to the restoration of 
the merchant marine of this country and the tearing from the mast- 
head of the grasping monopolist of the world's commerce the 
proud title of "Mistress of the Sea," and nailing it just under where 
the flag of our country is floating, and the giving again the glory of 
that fla<i- to all the winds and isles and stars of the sea. He had no 
patience with that kind of statesmanship which is the child of cheap 
demagogy and stupid unprogressiveness, and whose creed and code 
are summed up in the two words, ' I object." 

But last and best of all, Mr. O'Connor was a pure, sincere, and 
devout Christian. He made no noisy protestation of his faith, nor 
sought to intrude his opinions upon others; but he boldly pro- 
claimed the name of the Nazarene, and his daily walk and speech 
attested the belief of his heart; ami in this was lie an example to 
all of us. 

I know my own weakness, and how far short I fall of my own 
duty, nor do I dare stand here to admonish others; but professing 
my undying faith in the divinity of our holy religion, I do say that 
in the day when unbelief, unable to promise us other light than 
the feeble ray of reason, asks the world to blot from its sky the 
-tar of Bethlehem — that star which was the guide and the sign to 
our ancestors when they planted the tree of liberty here and watered 
it with their blood and tears; the star that pours its lucent beams 
upon the pathway of our fathers and mothers to guide their totter- 
ing footsteps, and upon which their beautiful old eyes gaze in con- 
tented joy as it beacons them homeward to perfect rest; thai star 
which lent its glory to our marriage vows and cast a halo about our 



JDDBESS OF Mi:. ROBINSON, OF WEW YORK. 31 

children's heads as they were anointed at the baptismal fount, 
and dissipated the gloom and the sorrow from the graves of our 
dead — it would be better if more of our strong men, of our public 
men, would, like my lamented friend, manifest their faith by their 
works, and live their religion in their lives, and boldly avow as he 
did their undying faith in that only name whereby men can be 
saved. For the bravest and the strongest of us at last are but as 
dust and weakness, and tottering along beneath our heavy burdens, 

i )nr dim eyea ask a beacon and our weary feet a guide, 
And our souls, of all life's mysteries, seek the meaning and the key; 

Lo! a cross gleams o'er our pathway — on it hangs the crucified — 
And He answers all our yearnings by the whisper, "Follow me ! " 

O'Connor heard, obeyed, and followed, and found peace here; 
and mv heart's faith tells me he has found perfect peace 1 where he 
has gone — beyond the shadowy river. 



Address of Mr. Robinson, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: I feel that after the eloquent address we have 
just listened to from the lips of the gentleman from Louisiana, I 
should perhaps be silent. But duty compels me to say a word or 
two. 

Death is no respecter of persons. He is a "black camel that 
kneels at the gates of all." He beats with impartial knockings at 
the cabins of the poor and palaces of kings. He crosses with equal 
footstep the threshold of the peasant and the statesman, and hangs 
his crape upon every door without regard to rank or sex or age. 

To-day we pause in our pursuit of the shadows of which our lives 
are made up to pay a tribute of respect to him whose voice was 
music and whose smile was light, which we shall see and hear no 
more. I have asked permission, as we bow our head in sorrow, to 
mingle my voice for a moment in the chorus of those who sing his 
praise. 



32 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

It seems but yesterday since I met him here, iu the closing days 
of the last session, and he looked forward to this Congress for 
pleasant intercourse with those who were easily taught to love him, 
but he went home to die, amid the friends he loved and in the State 
he loved and served, and left us and the people of our whole 
country to deplore his loss. 

Fifty years ago Mr. O'Connor was born in South Carolina. 
That grand old Commonwealth has given birth to many of our 
most illustrious statesmen. No province in the country gave nobler 
names to the cause of liberty than the Lynches, Pinckneys, and 
Rutledges ; and no State contributed to the Senate, iu later times, 
two such intellectual giants as John C. Calhoun and William C. 
Preston, and amid the stars that burn brightest in the glory of our 
firmament South Carolina points witli pride to her Butlers, Gads- 
dens, Hamptons, Haynes, Hugers, Legares, Lowndeses, McDuffies, 
Middletons, Pickenses, and Sumters. It was Mr. O'Connor's 
pride and honor to have called such a glorious State his mother, 
and her sons his brothers, of whom he was not unworthy. New 
York claims the privilege also of calling him her son. One of her 
best colleges is his Alma Mater, from which he graduated at the age 
of eighteen, and returning to his native State was admitted to prac- 
tice law at twenty-three. He had not been long at the Charleston 
bar till he began to show evidences of a genius worthy of his elder 
brethren. Nor was his fame confined to the precincts of his native 
State. Long before he came to Congress flashes of his eloquence 
shot up from his Southern home in rivalry of Northern lights, and 
in many circles of Northern States his fame was as foudly cherished 
as among the brilliant society of the sunny South. 

Had his life been spared he would have made an enviable record 
here ; but the hand of death was on his heart and the silence of the 
grave is on his eloquent lips. 

A loving wife mourns his double loss to herself and to their sor- 



ADDRESS OF MR. ROBINSON, OF NEW YORK. ,">,") 

rowing children. I >ut his country to-day, by her Representatives 
from all the States, takes pride in recounting his virtues and per- 
petuating their memory. Northern praise and Southern song 
mingle in mournful harmony over his loss. I have listened with 
pride to the voices of his eulogists here to-day. Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts, Montana, Maine, and Louisiana have mingled their 
eloquent and merited praises with the fit and feeling tributes from 
his own State with which these ceremonies have been opened and 
will close. 

< tomfort for the mourning widow and consolation for his bereaved 
family we offer here to-day from sympathizing hearts. We cannot 
dry the tears from their eyes, nor would we if wc could ; but the 
kindly words sincerely offered will shine through them and picture 
on the sky their future — a rainbow of hope and promise — for many 
a brijrhtenincr day. 

The sorrow that broods over his bereaved family day after day, 
that has enshrouded their hearts since his death and will con- 
tinue to fling its shadow over their brightest hours, broadens and 
deepens to-dav into national sympathy. The extremes of our grand 
Republic, Maine and Louisiana, Massachusetts and Montana, come 
with flowers culled from cultivated gradens and mountain wilds. 
South Carolina has covered his funeral bier with Southern garlands 
redolent of richest perfume. I beg leave to fling upon that bier as 
it passes a single rose-bud, bedewed with tears of sympathy and 
breathing fragrance from the home of his fathers. I sincerely 
mourn with his warmest friends his too early death ; but he lived 
long enough to secure the bays with which South Carolina decks 
the heads of her children. 

Nor shall that laurel ever fade with years 
Whose leaves an- watered with a Nation's tears. 

;; o 



34 LIFE AXD CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 



Address of Mr. Evins, of South Carolina. 

Mr. Speaker: To those of us who believe that — 

'T is not the whole of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die, 

such an occasion as this brings with it sober thought and serious 
reflection. The sentiment which demands this solemn pause amid 
the cares and duties which press upon us is a holy one, and spring- 
ing as it does from our higher and better nature, we do well to give 
it heed. Under its soft and gentle influence our thoughts are lifted 
out of their selfish grooves into a purer atmosphere, where the 
voice of passion and party is never heard, and where the affections 
are supreme. This sacred hour, with its elevating and ennobling 
influences, is not without its benefits to the living, while it is con- 
secrated to the dead. In this dark world of ours there is no richer 
gem than sorrow's diadem — a tear. 

Among the thoughts which crowd upon me at this moment, Mr. 
Speaker, the saddest is that which tells of the large number of seats 
made vacant by the "insatiate archer" since my entrance into this 
Hall as a member of the Forty-fifth Congress. How frequently, 
sir, during these brief years has the sound of the gavel upon your 
desk been muffled, and the noisy strife upon this floor been hushed 
by the funeral bell which told of the breaches made in our ranks. 
Another has been added to this long list, and to-day our thoughts 
• are turned to a green grave on our Southern coast, upon which the 
flowers of spring and summer have bloomed and died ; a grave 
which holds all that is mortal of Michael P. O'Connor, a mem- 
ber of the last and a member-elect to the present Congress. What 
name is there upon that death-roll more worthy to be hallowed by 
those gifted with the eloquence of speech? Whose noble and gen- 
erous qualities of heart better deserve the tribute of a tear? One 



ADDRESS OF MR. EVINS, OF SOI III CAROLINA. 3f> 

wliu sat upon the other side of this Chamber when I entered it fell 
by the hand of an assassin after he had reached the highest goal of 
earthly ambition ; and a sorrowing nation stood uncovered around 
his bier while the civilized world did him homage. Others still, 
upon that list, filled a larger space in the history of their country; 
but if those are esteemed most worthy of honor who have dis- 
charged with the greatest fidelity the high trusts committed to 
them as representatives of the people and the duties incumbent upon 
them as private citizens, then the name of my lamented friend and 
former colleague will suffer no eclipse in the galaxy where death 
has placed it. 

His presence and bearing gave instant assurance of the posses- 
sion, on his part, of those qualities of mind and disposition which 
always attract. His bright and open face, unmarred by those malign 
passion.- which so often disfigure with their lines and furrows nature's 
fair handiwork, gave him an unfailing passport to the good opinion 
and friendly courtesies of the stranger; while no one ever met the 
cordial grasp of his hand without feeling that the heart which pul- 
sated through it was filled with every kindly emotion. His ardent 
nature made him an enthusiast in whatever he undertook. He 
never did anything in a half-hearted way. With all the zeal and 
devotion of a true knight-errant he pursued the right as he under- 
stood it; yet with a generous courtesy, in which there was not a 
tinge of arrogance, he was ever ready to receive the counsel and 
advice of those who differed with him on questions of importance 
touching private interests or the public weal. 

Without fortune or family influence, he achieved success by faith- 
ful work and honest endeavor. In ashorttime after entering upon 
the practice of his profession, bis line power of speech and his 
ability to stir the hearts of men began to lie appreciated by the 
public, and very soon lie became a distinguished advocate at the 
Charleston bar, noted for its learning and eloquence, and at the 



36' LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL I\ O'CONNOR. 

head of which then .stood the erudite scholar and peerless lawyer, 
James L. Petigru. 

Mr. O'Connor's long service in the legislature of his State, 
extending through a series of years, from 1858 to I860, greatly 
increased his reputation. During this memorable period in the 
history of South Carolina the gravest questions which ever agitated 
the minds and hearts of her citizens were discussed and acted upon. 
Iu these exciting debates he bore a conspicuous part, finding in 
them the best themes for his impassioned oratory. Always con- 
servative, perhaps the ablest speeches he ever delivered were made 
during this period. Two among the most remarkable deserve special 
mention ; one was against the adoption of certain resolutions advo- 
cating the policy of reopening the African slave trade, and the other 
in favor of the maintenance of the Union of States, called forth 
by a report from the committee on federal relations. But the speech 
which displayed most strikingly his great gifts as an orator was 
that made by him as a member of the National Democratic Conven- 
tion, which met in Baltimore in 1872. The charm and witchery 
of his eloquence on this occasion so completely captivated the vast 
throng who heard him that, with one impulse, they rose to their 
feet and filled the immense hall in which they were gathered with 
round after round of deafening applause. The press of the day 
spoke of it as an effort "worthy of a Henry or a Preston." 

When, in 1876, the honest people of his native State determined 
to make a supreme and united effort to free themselves from the 
thralldom of the infamous men who for eight long years had used 
every department of the government simply as an instrument for 
oppression or a means of advancing and legalizing schemes of rob- 
bery and spoliation, they found no tongue more eloquent to depict 
their wrongs, no voice more potent to kindle into a blaze of enthu- 
siasm the energies which must crown their cause with success, than 
the tongue and voice of the gifted O'Connor. He was, during 



ADDRESS OF MR. EVINS, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 37 

this memorable struggle, the candidate of the Democracy of the sec- 
ond district for Congress; and whatever regrets others may have 
expressed for his defeat, he felt fully compensated for all the toil he 
had endured and all the sacrifices he had made in seeing his beloved 
State redeemed and once more restored to the control of those who 
had made her history glorious and her name immortal. Twice after 
this defeat he was returned as a member of this House, but lived 
only long enough to complete his first term. Short and unevent- 
ful as his career among us was, it was long enough to excite the 
brightest hopes for future renown, and long enough to fill our hearts 
to-day with sweet and sacred memories of his gentle nature, which 
time can never efface. Few, even among those most intimate with 
him while he occupied a seat on this floor, knew how intensely he 
suffered or how bravely he was fighting against the fatal disease 
which had fastened itself upon his vitals. The noble self-sacrifice 
he exhibited under all the adverse circumstances which surrounded 
him here, and the singleness of purpose with which he tilled the 
hours so much needed for rest and recuperation with work for his 
constituents and anxious thought for the public welfare, is worthy 
of all praise. 

Mr. Speaker, after the eloquent and touching eulogies already 
pronounced by the distinguished speakers who have preceded me, 
it is unnecessary for me to say more. 

No constituency ever had a more faithful and devoted Represent- 
ative ; South Carolina no truer son; the cause of liberty, whether 
it centered around the shamrock, so dear to his heart, or gathered 
about the Stars and Stripes, no firmer friend ; tyranny and wrong 
uore relentless foe. 

On the 4th of March last he went out from among us with the 
shadow of death upon his brow; a month later he was released 
from suffering and found a resting-place beneath the Palmetto lie 
loved so well, leaving behind him a memory as fragranl as the 



38 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

flowers which bloom above him, and as fresh and green to-day as 
the grass upon his grave. 

Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the resolutions presented 
by my colleague. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted ; and accordingly 
the House adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



February 9, 1882. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. John 
Bailey, its Chief Clerk, communicated to the Senate the intelli- 
gence of the death of Hon. Michael P. O'CONNOR, late a mem- 
ber of the House from the State of South Carolina, and trans- 
mitted the resolutions of the House thereon. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

Resolved, That tliis House lias heard with profound sorrow of the death of 
Hon. .Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from the stale of 
South Carolina. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to his memory the officers and members 
of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Clerk of 
this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of these pro- 
ceedings to the Senate ; and that, as a further mark of respect to the memorj 
of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Butler. Mr. President, I offer the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow the announce- 
ment of tin- death of Hon. Michael P. O'CONNOR, late a member of the lb. use 
of Representatives from the State of South Carolina. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended that opportu- 
nity may be given for fitting tributes to the memory of the deceased and to 
his eminent public and private virtues, and that as a further mark of respect 
the Senate at the conclusion of such remarks shall adjourn. 

Address of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina. 

Mr. President: The frequent recurrence of these sad occasions 

in the Congress of the United States, when we are called upon by 

fitting ceremonies to pay a final tribute to the memories of our 

39 



40 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

brethren who have died from among us, is calculated to remind us 
with striking significance of the slight tenure we have upon life. 
But a few days have elapsed since we heard in this Chamber the 
touching and affectionate tributes to two of the most distinguished 
and beloved of our number — one the late lamented Senator from 
Rhode Lslaud (Geucral Burnside), the embodiment of vigorous 
health, and yet he answered the call of the grim messenger as 
serenely as did the great Wisconsin Senator (Carpenter), who 
languished and suffered and sunk under the wasting hand of 
disease; and again to-day, sir, we are confronted with the dismal 
reality that another of our brethren of the other House is dead. 

11 is reputation and fame were not so wide-spread and national 
as the two renowned Senators, but the hearts of neither of them, 
generous as they were, throbbed with more fervid patroitism or 
warmed with more generous sympathies than did that of my late 
friend, M. P. O'Connor. He loved his country and his friends 
with unstinted devotion, and in turn received the homage of their 
undivided confidence and respect. 

The overflowing generosity and kindness of his enthusiastic Irish 
nature secured for him the warmest attachment of his friends, and 
his ardent devotion to the best interests of his country and the require- 
ments of duty commanded the admiration of all men. 

Mr. O'Connor was born in the old town of Beaufort, South 
Carolina, on the 29th of September, 1831, and died in Charleston 
on the 26th day of April, 1881, in the fiftieth year of his age. 

He was educated and graduated at Saint John's College, Fordhani, 
New York, and was by profession a lawyer, with his office in the 
city of Charleston. He represented that city for four terms in the 
legislature of South Carolina, from 1858 to 1865, and was elected 
to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses from the second 
Congressional district, and died while a member of the Forty- 
sixth Congress. 



ADDRESS OF MB. BUTLER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 41 

In 1872 Mr. O'Connor was a delegate to the National Demo- 
cratic Convention held in the city of Baltimore, and again repre- 
sented his party in the national convention at Saint Louis in 187<>. 

lie was highly gifted as an orator and public speaker. In the 
course of the proceedings of the Baltimore convention he made one 
of those impassioned bursts of eloquence that electrify an audience 
and take it captive. He lighted a spark that swept through the con- 
vention with irresistible enthusiasm, and acquired in this national 
arena a reputation as a public speaker that had hitherto been local, 
hut none the less duly appreciated by those who were accustomed 
to hear him. His style of oratory was peculiarly attractive and 
captivating. With a clear, ringing voice, under perfect control, his 
style was as chaste and classical as the most finished elocutionist, and 
his flow of language as easy and unhesitating as an unobstructed 
stream. Equipped with these high qualities, coupled with a ripe 
scholarship and well-stored mind, he was a ready and effective 
speaker and only awaited a fitting opportunity in the other branch 
of the National Legislature to have illustrated his great powers as a 
parliamentary debater. 

In 1876 Mr. O'Connor was made president of that ancient order 
of glorious memories and associations, the Hibernian Society of 
Irishmen, of Charleston. Hear what one of that society says of 
him, Hon. A. G. Magrath, who was himself a paragon of perfect 
speech with a brilliant intellect. In presenting the tribute of respect 
to the late president, at a meeting of the Hibernian Society, May •"., 
1881, Judge Magrath said: 

Tin' flowers I lay on liis grave are net bright ami beautiful as lie would 
have gathered, but who could equal bis taste or bis skill .' 

I lis hear! was as open and cheering as the light of day. His sympathy with 
bis race was attuned to a pet bit harmony. Snfferiug, whatever form it took, 
was resistless in its appeal; and oppression, however imposing in its force, 
was confronted by him, who never quailed before it. Ami when it grew in 
its proporl ions and threatened eon inities, his spirit rose equal to the magni- 



42 LIFE AND CHARACTER 01 MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 

tude of the occasion; and a generous heart inspired the burning words that 
caused his passionate eloquence to stir the most sluggish to sympathy with 
him. 

No one born in the land of his forefathers more rejoiced in all that was 
glorious in its past; or in more touching pathos mourned what is sad and 
depressing in its present fortunes. These walls have echoed his denuncia- 
tions of its wrongs, and the demand for its rights. But of these there is no 
record. They were like the Hash of the lightning, brilliant, dazzling, startling; 
not to be forgotten, yet not to be recalled. 

But for his own State, his own city, bis ow n home, his own friends, every 
generous and indignant passion inhim was stirred to its deepest depths in the 
suffering he saw and shared. When in giving expression to his feeling, 
when the heart and the brain, with intensity that could not be surpassed in 

their union, rose into the grand diapason of oratory, he s1 1 to champion her 

cause, no more devoted son could be found within her limits. He spoke as 
men do whose words ring true to the honest passion which prompts iheii 
utterance and they who speak forget themselves in kinship with those whose 
wrongs only are remembered. 

He occupied a commanding position in that galaxy of distinguished 
lawyers at the Charleston bar — one of the ablest, I think, in the 
win ile country — and held his own successfully in intellectual con- 
tests with the brightest luminaries of his professional brethren. 
His entry into active political life was attended by one of the most 
vexatious and bitter contests ever known in the political history of 
this country, and yet his most unsympathetic political antagonist 
will concede that throughout the long and trying ordeal he bore 
himself with becoming moderation and decorum, and with the self- 
respect and bearing of a dignified gentleman. Upon taking his scat 
in the Forty-sixth Congress he was assigned to some of the impor- 
tant committees, and devoted himself with unassuming but faithful 
earnestness to his duties. Watching the interests of his immediate 
constituency and section with singular fidelity, taking broad, liberal 
views of all matters presented to Congress for consideration, he 
never permitted his duty to his State to narrow his views on national 
questions. Such, Mr. President, is a brief record of his outward 
public career. It is as honorable as any man's. 

He was for many years in the open light of the public gaze, in 



ADDRESS or MR. BUTLER, OF SOUTB CAROLINA. 43 

times of great temptation and excitement, but no whisper ever tainted 
his character; no breath of suspicion ever impaired the strength of 
his public life, and no word of reproach was ever uttered against 
his private worth. He literally "died in harness," discharging his 
high duty with a fidelity that was as sacred to him as his life, and 
an ability that reflects luster upon his name. This, sir, is a feeble, 
not overdrawn, encomium that I bestow upon a dead friend with 
sincere regard for his memory. 

But there was an inner circle in Mr. ( >'< !< >nnor's life — the family, 
the home, friends — where he was as simple and unselfish in his 
affections as a guileless child. It is almost forbidden to enter that 
-acred circle upon a public occasion, but my contribution to these 
memorial ceremonies, however otherwise imperfect, would be incom- 
plete without allusion to that phase of his life where the undis- 
guised tenderness of a manly heart and unrestrained indulgence in 
his pure affections dispensed so much happiness and pleasure to 
those who clung to him with such ardent devotion. That circle is 
broken forever. 

What power can measure the intensity of the anguish that wrung 
tin' hearts <>t' those who had been made glad and happy by his 
generous affections'.' Certainly no human power. Let us, then, 
draw tenderly and reverently the veil <>f mourning over the sacred 
mystery, and lay upon his green grave the homage of our unafifected 
si >rrow. 

He lies beneath the soil of the State he loved so well and served 
-. i faithfully. It was there he wished to be buried and rest for- 
ever, where the ceaseless moaning of the stately pine and the rust- 
ling breezes through the ever-green magnolia, mingling with the 
restless murmur of the neighboring waves and sighing wind- of his 
beloved sunny land, might sing his requiem forever in the perfect 
harmonies of nature's faultless symphonies. 



44 LIFE AND CHARACTER <>F MICHAEL I'. O'CONNOR. 



Address of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware. 

Mr. President: My personal acquaintance with the worthy 
gentleman whoso death we all deplore was commenced amid the 
somewhat stormy scenes of a national convention, held in the city 
of Baltimore, in Juno, 1872, which he attended as a delegate from 
the State of South Carolina; and I can well recall the spirited and 
effective eloquence with which he espoused a course of action in 
which I did not concur. 

He subsequently became a member of the House of Representa- 
tives, and friendly personal relations were soon established between 
us, in which I discerned his active, ardent interest in public affairs, 
and his usefulness as an able and honorable representative of his 
State and country. 

He gained early, and never lost, the confidence and esteem of his 
associates without regard to their party affiliations, and his reputa- 
tion as a capable and faithful legislator will long survive. 

I remember well his friendly and especial interest in the affairs of 
that peculiarly helpless class of our people, who suffered so severely 
by the failure of the Freedman's Savings Bank and the subsequent 
mismanagement of its assets. 

He espoused the cause of that large body of poor investors with 
characteristic generosity and devotion, and, had his wise counsels 
prevailed, I believe great deterioration in the assets of that institu- 
tion and heavy losses would have been prevented. 

Mr. O'Connor, although a natural-born citizen of South Caro- 
lina, possessed, in a marked degree, the characteristics of the race 
from which he sprung. His name and parentage were Irish; and 
he was one of the almost countless illustrations of worth and char- 
acter, eloquence and wit, courage and capacity, which that island of 



ADDRESS OF MB. JONES, OE FLORIDA. 45 

sorrows has contributed to build up and strengthen the Govern- 
ment of the United States and the advancement of its people. 

Mr. President, it' the names of the men of Irish birth and Irish 
blood who have- dignified and decorated the annals of American 
history were to be erased from the record, how much of the glory of 
our country would be subtracted! In the list of American slates- 
men and patriots, theologians and i ts, soldiers and sailors, jurists 

and orators, what names shine with purer luster or are mentioned 
with more respect than those of the men, past and present, we owe 
to Ireland ? 

On that imperishable roll of honor, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, we find their names, and in the prolonged struggle that fol- 
lowed there was no battle-field from the Saint Lawrence to the 
Savannah but was enriched with Irish Mood shed in the cause of 
civil and religious liberty. To-day we see them in our midst, 
honored and beloved by their associates, and valued not only by 
their constituents alone, but by the entire country. Of this patri- 
otic class was Mr. O'CONNOR, and whilst we cannot fail to mourn 
the loss occasioned by his death, we may well cherish the legacy of 
honest fame and faithful public service he has left us. 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Florida. 

Mr. President: Only a few weeks ago the Senate was called 
upon to express its respect and sympathy over the loss of two of its 
distinguished members, and it sent its resolutions of mourning to 
receive the concurrence of the other house. To-day that house, 
as if to remind us of the undis riminating harshness of death, and 
that no official station within or without this Capitol can shield or 
protect its victims, informs us officially of the loss of one of its mem- 
bers. The worthy man of whom I am to speak to-day was not known 



46 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL /'. O'CONNOR. 

to many Senators as well as he was to me. I met him in the first 
political body I ever entered — the Baltimore convention of 1872; 
and when lie entered the other house my acquaintance ripened into 
intimacy. In my intercourse with him I had a fair opportunity of 
studying and appreciating his character, which was eminently dis- 
tinguished for qualities that always have excited and always will 
excite both interest ami admiration. 

Michael P. O'Connor was a generous, tender-hearted, brave 
man. His mind was active, bright, and full of impartiality. And 
his great heart — how shall 1 speak of it? — was filled to overflowing 
with the kindliest and tenderest feelings and sympathies, which 
needed only the faintest exhibition of sorrow or misfortune to bring 
them into full play. He was the undoubted possessor of some of 
the best qualities of that race to which his name exclusively belongs. 
While he was a native of South Carolina, and was devoted to her 
as strongly as man ever was to the soil that gave him birth, in all 
the controlling characteristics of nature he was an Irishman — more 
of an Irishman than many who first saw the light of heaven on Irish 
soil; and there was not the least dross in his character to obscure or 
disfigure those genuine traits of the race from which he sprung. 

While no one claimed for him those pre-eminent gifts of mind 
which immortalized Sheridan, Grattan, and Curran, still he had 
qualities in common with all of those great men, and without which 
their purely intellectual gifts never would have made them famous 
as orators and thinkers. The inflamed fancy, the enthusiastic spirit, 
the emotional nature were all his, and with them he combined a 
lofty, indeed I might say an ever watchful and sensitive, courage, 
which was ever on tip-toe surveying everything that approached 
the sacred domain of his manhood and honor. The slightest impu- 
tation or insinuation of indignity would arouse all the stormy fury 
of his nature, while the simplest appeal to his charity and kindness 
would melt him into the tenderest sympathy and almost bring forth 



ADDRESS OF Ml;. JONES, OF FLORIDA. 47 

his tears. Whatever cause or object enlisted his exertions received 
from liini (lie must persevering support, and he gave in such cases 
t<> the interests and concerns of the stranger more labor and effort 
than he would ever give to his own. 

His was one of those noble souls which, instead of leaving the 
great highway of suffering and sorrow to avoid the appeals of the 
injured and distressed; are forever in search of objects upon which 
to exercise their benevolence and kindness. The sufferings and 
wrongs of the country of his fathers affected him as deeply as they 
did any one who had personally felt their sting. He was familiar 
with her sad history of tears and blood ; never weak enough to 
deny her claim to the sympathy of the world, or because of her 
poverty and oppression refused her the honor and recognition that 
was due to her genius and her fame. Whenever a kind or sympa- 
thetic word was called for in the interest of Ireland, the voice of M. 
P. O'Connor was always heard. While he might have skulked 
behind his nativity and disclaimed his Irish blood, he was too great 
and good and true to he either insincere or indifferent in anything, 
and his justice and intelligence were too strong and decided for 
him ever to think of any petty advantage which might flow from 
joining those who gave the cold shoulder to the land of his lather.-. 
The admonition of Ireland's great poet had no effect upon him: 

Unprized are her suns till they learn to betray, 
Undistinguished they live it they shame not their sins. 

And tlir torch that would light them to dignity's way 
Must In- < • a n _; 1 1 1 from the pile when their country expires. 

In his character of a national legislator he combined the most 
untiring- devotion to the interests of his immediate constituents 
with a sincere and active interest for the welfare and happiness of 
the whole Union. Accepting with manly resignation the inevi- 
table results of the civil war, he brought to the councils of his 
country a mind and heart free from all unkindness and prejudice 



48 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL /'. O'CONNOR. 

as well as an honest determination to employ his best talents in 
promoting concord and good-will among all classes of the people. 
Often have I been benefited by the breadth and patriotism of his 
views respecting the duties of those who represented Southern con- 
stituencies in Congress. He spoke with the wisdom of a philoso- 
pher and in the words of a true patriot. 

He was not unmindful of the natural effects of the terrible civil 
conflict through which we had passed iu obstructing for a time the 
extension of justice and kindness to the section he so dearly loved, 
lie made due allowance for the passions and weaknesses of human 
nature, and what others attributed to inborn and irremediable hos- 
tility he knew to be only the excrescence of protracted sectional 
strife, which, if not inflamed for unworthy purposes by weak or 
designing men, would ultimately yield to the healthy reaction of 
the body-politic, and leave the country in the enjoyment of real 
peace, union, and concord. 

I have seen him surrounded by his devoted family, and any one 
in the least conversant with the operations of his private life could 
readily see that to his high qualities as a citizen and public servant 
he added the virtues of a devoted husband and an affectionate 
father. I have sometimes heard public men applauded for their 
Christian faith. With Mr. O'Connor religion was not an empty 
name. He did not aim to be a pillar of the church, and never 
attempted to put his piety into the faces of those with whom he 
mingled. Like all true men he eliminated it from all else that 
appertained to the affairs of this life, and regarded it as a sacred 
thing in which only himself and his God were concerned. Devoid 
of all sectarian narrowness and bigotry, his preference for the 
creed in which he lived and died never for a moment interrupted 
the course of his friendship and love for those who differed from 
him. Although cut down in the prime of his manhood, he lived 
long enough to establish a character for honor, usefulness, and 



ADDRESS OF MB. HAMPTON, OF SOOTH < li;<ii.l\ I. |',l 

devotion to duly of which both his family and people may be 
proud. 

Oli, in \ beloved and devoted friend, 
While kindred woes siill breathe around thine urn, 

Long with the tear of absence must 1 blond 
The Bigb thai speaks, Thou uever shall return. 

"I'wms faith that, bending o'er the 1 ►» - < 1 of death, 

Slicd o'er thj pallid cheek :i transient raj ; 
With softer effort soothed thy laboring breath, 

( ;.t\ c grace in anguish, beauty to decaj . 

Thy wife and children claimed thy latest care; 

Theirs w as I be lasl I bat to I by bosom clung ; 
For them to Heaven thou send'sl the expiring prayer, 

The last that faltered on lliv trembling tongue. 



Address of Mr. Hampton, of South Carolina. 

Mr. President: Twice within the past few days have we been 
called upon to do honor to the memory of colleagues who have been 
summoned to answer that great final roll-call on high, to which all 
mankind must respond. Laying aside the ordinary routine of 
business; pausing for a time amid the rush of active life an 1 the 
clash of conflicting opinions; forgetting even all political differ- 
ences, we met, on those solemn occasions, on the broad ground of a 

conn i humanity, consecrated to us by a common affliction. Rhode 

Island and Wisconsin, mourning the death of two illustrious citi- 
zens who had represented them in this Chamber, called then U] 

the great sisterhood of States for that sympathy which sorrow such 
as theirs demands, and which should always be freely given. N\ e 
all know how generously, how tenderly this was extended. To-day 
South Carolina, deploring the loss of a gifted and devoted son, 
turns in her bereavemenl to her sister States for the same sympathy. 

The resolutions which have been'presentedHby my colleague tell 

of the death of Hon. M. P. O'Connor, late a Representative from 
4o 



50 LIFE JXIi CHARACTER OF MICHAEL /'. O'CONNOR. 

my State in the other branch of Congress, and the touching trib- 
utes which have been paid to his memory leave me nothing to say 
that could add to the high and deserved estimation in which lie was 
held. Feeling this, 1 should remain silent were it not that as a 
representative on this floor of the State which honored him, and 
which he loved so ardently, it becomes me to bear testimony to his 
signal public services and to his eminent private virtues. As a 
Senator from South Carolina it is my duty to do this, but a much 
higher duty, one very near my heart, demands this at my hands : 
he was a valued and trusted friend. The warm friendship I enter- 
tained for him sprung up in long by-gone years; it grew stronger 
as time rolled on, and it was terminated only by his death. I feel 
his loss, therefore, not only as a public calamity, but as a severe 
personal bereavement. Few men in our State had a wider circle of 
earnest, devoted friends than himself, and I know of no tribute to 
him which could be more honorable, more touching, or more tender 
than the general sense of personal loss felt at his death by all of 
them. Warm-hearted, generous, kind, and lovable, he drew his 
friends close to him, and they loved him for his virtues while they 
admired him for his talents. 

He was no ordinary man either in character or intellect, for while 
the one secured for him the esteem of those who knew him, the 
other won for him a wide and well-earned reputation. The warm 
Irish blood that flowed in his veins gave to his nature its impul- 
sive generosity and lent to his persuasive tongue no small portion of 
that marvelous eloquence which seems to be the birthright of the 
countrymen of Burke, of Sheridan, of Curran, of Grattan, ant; of 
O'Connell. But, with all these rare gifts of nature, of intellect, and 
of education, he was not fitted for the rough conflict of political 
strife, and I have no doubt his life was cut short by the anxieties, 
the responsibilities, and the vexations attending a public career. 
He was so conscientious in the discharge of all his duties, so labo- 



IDDRESS OF MR. BAMPTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 51 

rious iii 1 1 10 performance of them, so sensitive in his nature, that his 
health gave way under the severe strain to which it was subjected 
by his public duties. Broken in health, bravely struggling to the 
last in the interest of the people who had honored him, he fell at 
his post of duty with his harness on, and his last, his dying efforts 
were given to the State he had served well, and to the people who 
loved and trusted him. His deatli was a severe hiss to that Slate, 
an irreparable one to hi- family, hut a gain to him, for he had so 
lived that he was well prepared to give an account of the deed- 
done in the flesh. lie lived long enough to achieve an honorable, 
enviable reputation, and long enough to realize that — 
The paths of glory Lead but to Alio grave. 

When he was laid at rest in the bosom of his mother earth, under 

the shadows of the magnolias of his native land, a friend who knew 
him well wrote thus of him : 

For him who lies in peace, with restful hands, tliis morning, it had been 
better perhaps had he never known the vicissitudes and responsibilities of 
political life. It was all less to him. The gain was to his people ami the 
State. So must it lie loo often in such times as these with men most worthy 
of public trust. 

Doubtless, Mr. President, it would have been better for him had 
he held aloof from the rude arena of political warfare, keeping the 
even tenor of his way along the quieter and happier paths of pri- 
vate life; but we who are left are better for the example of his life 
and that of his death. The one shows us the duty of the patriot, 
the other teaches the sublime faith of the Christian. They both 
should impress on us the great lesson that — 

"1' is mil the whole of lite to live: 
Nor all of death to die. 

The resolutions wire agreed to unanimously; and (he Senate 
adjourned. 



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